While some businesses may not feel the need to call during an emergency, many others should consider this as part of their business continuity solution. Giving your staff the opportunity to remain in contact may be vital where you place them in either remote or dangerous environments, or they have vital requirements to stay in touch with other office locations during natural disasters or failed standard communication methods. This post may deal with business related requirements, but should also be considered as part of a family emergency preparedness plan if you live in regions suffering from Tornadoes, Hurricanes, or live in remote locations where general phone networks may not be reliable and communication can be vital to survival.
Solution: Using a satellite phone during an emergency.
Terrestrial cell antennas and telephone networks tend to be damaged during a natural disaster. Examples where this has occurred include the September 11 attacks, the Hawaiian earthquake, the 2003 Northeast blackouts, Hurricane Katrina, the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse and the 2010 Chilean earthquake. Satellite telephony can be critical in natural disaster communications. A satellite phone should be a considered part of your business continuity service for communication during a disaster. Calling during an emergency can be life saving, but can play an important role for your business.
Satellite view of Port-au-Prince, Haiti Earthquake damage.
The FCC have started to work on plans to ensure 911 services remain operational in the US, though this is just for emergency services and will not allow you to contact family, colleagues who may be stranded (or to inform them the server farm has just been sunk), or to make other vital continguency plans for your business;
"..reviewing the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) is working on several fronts to improve communications during emergencies, including streamlining collection of outage information during times of crisis through the Disaster Information Reporting System, helping ensure that communications workers receive “essential personnel” credentials during emergencies, working with other federal agencies to improve interoperability among first responders, and promoting use of enhanced 911 best practices."[Read More]
While Public-safety answering points (PSAP) may begin to help the strain for the vital lives, secondary businesses may require to stay in communication to remain in business. It may be vital to the business life line even if no lives rely on it. A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based Satellite Phone like the Iridium can be the ideal solution and will leave emergency service lines open for the life savers, and help you save your business life line.
Further Reading:
Wikipedia Entry on Satellite Phones
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